Make A Wish….

Today I have a little cutie by Art By Miran to share with you.  Over at Crafting From The Heart, we were very lucky to be sponsored by both Art By Miran and SNS for this challenge.  As I’ve had this little fairy hiding on my desk, I thought it would be the perfect time to pop her on a card!

I’ve kept the card nice and simple, using AC coloured cardstock to create depth.  I printed the stars and sparkles directly to the top layer, and then added two layers of Star Dust Stickles once it was in place on the card.  The sentiment is part of a Samantha Walker file from the Silhouette store, cut from matching cardstock and coated with a touch of Stickles (must remember to order a Wink Of Stella pen….!).

The image was printed and cut using the Silhouette, then popped up on 3D pads.  She was coloured with Pro-Markers (the magenta blend pack accidentally found its way into my basket on a trip to TK Maxx last week….oops!) and finished with a little Stickles sparkle too.

Make sure you stop by Crafting From The Heart – it’s Anything Goes as always, so I’m sure you’ll have something to share!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Art By Miran – Anything Goes

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When I Grow Up….

This week’s challenge over at Sentimental Sundays is all about what you’d like to be when you grow up!  Our sponsor, PolkaDoodles, offered us three images to choose from; I stayed girly and picked the ballerina, and popped her into a card based around the current sketch challenge over at Try Stampin On Tuesday (see below for sketch).

The image was coloured with ProMarkers and lots of Candy Floss and Star Dust Stickles, and popped into a Kraft frame which I edged lightly with silver Brilliance ink.  To give the impression of daydreaming, I chose to emboss the panel behind the image with the Clouds folder by Darice, smudging my pink chalk VersaMagic ink from the bottom to the top of the panel to highlight the clouds.  I used the same technique on the heart embossed banner, while the second banner just had the ink pulled across, without any embossing!  The panel and both the banners were mounted on Kraft.  The sentiment in the top right was cut from some bubblegum pink glitter cardstock by the Silhouette.

Make sure you head over to Sentimental Sundays to see what the other DT ladies want to be when they grow up!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Try Stampin On Tuesday – sketch (rotated)

Love To Scrap GDT

I’m delighted to share with you today the card I have made for my first GDT post with Love To Scrap!

The challenge this week is “BINGO” – simply pick a column from the grid below and make a project that includes all the elements listed in that column…simple, eh?!

I choose the final column for my project, so I needed to include purple, brads, twine, embossing and any sentiment.  My image, Emmilou Boo, came from one of this week’s sponsors, Lacy Sunshine, who are offering 3 images for the winner of the challenge!  In addition, there is also the chance to win 3 images from the challenge’s other sponsor, The Stamping Chef!

I coloured Emmilou Boo using Pro-Markers.  I hadn’t thought about the lack of straw coloured markers in my collection….so I ended up spending a good while patch testing a variety of colour combos!  In the end I settled on Mustard, Tulip Yellow, Pastel Yellow and Putty, but to create some texture I tried my hand at Pointilism, putting down dots of colour rather than blending the inks.  I’m not 100% happy with the grass – I picked the colours in daylight, but it was late by the time I coloured and the end result is slightly more neon than I’d hoped, and not really in keeping with the pastel colours I’d used in the rest of the card, but on a positive note, I like the texture that the different shades of green have made!  Can’t win them all, eh?!  Stickles for the dandelion clocks and a glittery purple frame finished the image off.

I was originally planning to base the card around the curent sketch over at Crafting When We Can, but I couldn’t find an element for the top corner that I was happy with – I tried a few options, but they either made the card feel to cluttered or they looked insubstantial.  For the base layer, I have embossed some white cardstock using a freebie flower folder that came with a magazine, then blended some Dusty Concorde Distress Ink and mounted it on a pearlescent purple Bazzill cardstock.  The next layer just uses half a doily, mounted on the same cardstock.

The flower border is from the Silhouette Online Store, cut from a darker shade of purple cardstock.  The sentiment was created in Silhouette Studio, edged with Distress Ink, backed by some glitter cardstock and secured with a purple flower brad that has been living in my stash for a good few years, along with the butterfly beads, which I have secured using twine.

I have to confess that I had pretty much finished the card and was running through the list of required elements when I realised I’d missed something off – it went something like this “purple, check; embossing, check; sentiment, check; brad, check; twine……..ooops!”.  Luckily I was able to take the brad off, add the twine and butterflies and pop it all together pretty easily 🙂

Anyway, that’s just about it for now, make sure you head over to Love To Scrap for a look at the DT makes!  I’ll be back with another Love To Scrap GDT post later this month.

I’d like to ente this card into the following challenges:

Make My Monday – Seasonal Colours

 Perfectly Rustics – Bling, Bling, Shine and Sparkle

Melonheadz Friends – Circles

Incy Wincy – 4+ Papers/Brads

Bunny Zoe’s – Distress

Card Mania Challenges – Embossing

We Do Doobadoo – Layers

Who’s The Em-Boss?!

Embossing is the new theme over at Sentimental Sundays this week!  Whether it’s dry embossing or heat embossing, we’d love to see how you incorporate it into your projects for this week’s link-up.

The challenge is sponsored by The Cutting Cafe; they kindly offered the DT two files to use in their projects this week – I chose to use the Rain, Rain, Go Away set, which comes with so many different elements!

For my card, I chose the gorgeous Wellie boots and the cute sentiment.  I made the rainbow in the Silhouette software by adding several offset layers to build up the colours, and then overlaid the sentiment before printing and cutting the image.  The boots and puddle were cut by the Silhouette and coloured with Pro-Markers.  I added touches of Crystal Stickles and Glossy Accents to the boot and puddles to add a little detail.

Now, I hadn’t forgotten that the theme was embossing!  I chose a square of dove grey cardstock and dry embossed it by running the Darice Clouds folder through my Cuttlebug – it doesn’t show so well in the main picture, but it is easier to pick out on the photo below.  Perfect grey cloudy sky backdrop for my lovely bright rainbow!!

What will you emboss on your card?  I could do with some ideas of how to get the most out of heat embossing – I have the tools, but just don’t seem to get it right.  But dry embossing….now you’re talking!!  Can’t wait to see your projects in the link-up!

I’d like to enter this card into the following  challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown – Weather Report

Natalie and Amy – Embossing

Southern Girls – Earn Your Stripes

Coffee, Chocolate and Cards – Yipes, Stripes!

Easter Egg Delivery

It’s new challenge time over at Crafty Girls!  We are sponsored by A Day For Daisies and Glamoureyes, and there are some great prizes to be snapped up!

I chose Easter Egg Delivery by A Day For Daisies for my card – I loved the idea of a little sprite delivering the eggs, with the help of a kaleidoscope of butterflies!  The layout is based around the current sketch challenge over at Friday Sketch Challenge (flipped sideways):

I deliberately kept the design of the card quite flat as I will probably be posting this card off to my god-daughter in Sheffield, so I’d rather keep the postage down!  The papers are all from the Dovecraft Back To Basics III stack – my favourite for Spring themed cards at the moment!  After colouring the image with Pro-Markers, I softened the edges with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to imitate the sky as a background.  The spots on the Easter Egg were added with a Sakura Jelly Roll pen – unfortunately they didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped, there are too many, too close and the sizes are too uneven! Finally a little touch of Stickles on the wings (although it is impossible to see in the photos!).

Make sure you pop over to the Crafty Girls and have a peek at the projects from my teamies – you won’t be disappointed!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Friday Sketch Challenge – see sketch above

Sparkles  – Easter Parade

4 Crafty Chicks – Colour A Stamped Image

Creative Moments – Things With Wings

Crafting With Butterflies – Easter

City Crafter – Easter

Crafty Boots – Easter

Paper Makeup Stamps – Pastel Colours

Lexis Creations – Easter

Paper Nest Dolls Norway – Easter

Paper Pieced Mermaid

The new challenge at Crafty Girls begins today.  The theme for this challenge is “paper piecing” and our sponsors are MilkCoffee and Sassy Design Studios.

I chose Little Mermaid by MilkCoffee for my DT card.  I paper pieced the mermaid’s tail and the starfish, and coloured the mermaid and sky in using ProMarkers.

Aside from the paper pieced areas, I hadn’t really thought about the rest of the image in much detail, which led to a “head-in-hands” moment earlier when I couldn’t figure how to create waves or depth in the sea…. After a cup of coffee, things became much clearer and I picked up where I’d left off!  I had printed a spare copy of the image, so I cut along the tops of the waves and laid the spare mermaid and sky part to protect the partly coloured image while I applied Distress Inks to the bottom half of the image.  The coffee must have kicked in around then, as I suddenly thought about moving the mask down a little and added a little more Distress Ink, to make a darker more intense colour.  I carried on a couple more times, using a mix of Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers for the bottom two waves to deeper the colour even more.  When I took the protective cover off, I was delighted to see the final effect – the mermaid was surrounded by a beautifully coloured sea!

I framed the image with some shimmery turquoise cardstock and based the rest of the layout around the current sketch over at From The Heart Stamps:

The papers are from the American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray paper stack.  The final touches were the yellow and white twine, threaded through a starfish bead that is from my stash and a liberal sprinkling of Crystal Stickles to make my little mermaid sparkle!!

Make sure you pop over to have a look at the projects created by my Crafty Girls team-mates!  I look forward to seeing your paper pieced projects soon too.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

From The Heart Sketches: Sketch 54 (see above)

Little Miss Muffet Stamps – Birthday (balloons or birthday sentiment)

Milk Coffee – Girly

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes

Fab n Funky  – Spots and Stripes

Craft Your Passion – Girly Girl

Cutie Pie Challenge – Cute + Spots/Dots

Catered Crop – Birthdays

Thanks for reading x

Mesmerising…..

I have my card for the new Crafting From The Heart challenge to share with you today.  As always, you can choose to play Anything Goes or to use our theme, which is “Flowers” this fortnight.  (Little confession…I forgot about the theme!  I got carried away!) We are very lucky to be sponsored by Aurora Wings and MelJens Designs – I chose to use the beautiful Princess of the Sea for my card, as I fell totally under her spell, and couldn’t look away!

I have to be honest, as beautiful as I find these images, I wasn’t rushing to work with one.  They are so intricately designed, that I couldn’t myself sitting still long enough to focus on colouring one, let alone presenting it in a style that suited it!  I thought these captivating images were about as far away from my comfort zone as possible!!  So, in the spirit of trying new things this year, I set myself the challenge!  And here she is, all coloured and simply presented…

I used ProMarkers to colour the image.  Unfortunately, it took three attempts, due to a very juicy marker leaking all over the almost completed image twice (you’d think I’d have learnt after the first accident…!).  My original attempts both had blonde hair, but I’m glad I swapped to brown for the final version as it makes the shells easier to distinguish.  Once coloured, I added Glossy Accents to some of the larger water bubbles and Star Dust Stickles to some of the shells, smaller bubbles and the Princess’s eyelids.

I cut the frame on the Silhouette using a pearlescent pale gold card, and popped the image behind.  I added a bow, with two little starfish (that have been hiding in my stash for at least 5 years!) sewn to the centre.

Make sure you head over to Crafting From The Heart to add your creations to the challenge!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Scribble and Scrap – Anything Goes

Craft-Dee Bowz – Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations – Fantasy (mermaid)

Fairy Tale Challenge – Frame cards

Thanks for reading x

A Birthday Card For A Special Lady…

Our challenge this week at Sentimental Sundays is “Birthday Cards For A Special Woman (using pastel colours)”.  We were really lucky to be sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps for this challenge; I had a tough time choosing, but finally decided on “Dottie Celebrate” as the card I had in mind needed a fabulous image!!

I coloured Dottie using Pro-Markers in pastel lilac shades, keeping her hair blonde too.  The sentiment was printed at the same time as the image, with the exception of “fabulous” which I welded and cut from glittercard on the Silhouette, using the Grand Hotel font.  A few touches of Stickles and a few little gems for sparkle and the main panel of the card was complete.

Next, I cut a border from a sheet of Sienna glittered vellum by Papermania, attached them to the top and bottom of the main panel and laid it over two strips of lilac cardstock, using 3D pads for a bit of height.

I hope to see you over at Sentimental Sundays, you really wouldn’t want to miss the amazing projects my teamies have prepared for you.  Just one last thing…don’t forget to include a sentiment!!

I’d like to enter this card in the follwing challenges:

Craftyhands – shades of a colour

Challenges for Everybody – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes

Catch the Bug – Bugaboo

ABC Challenges – Anything Goes With Colouring

Thanks for reading x

Fancy Folds Challenge at Crafting From The Heart

Over at Crafting From The Heart, there’s a new challenge starting today! We’d like to see your fancy folds!! So, if you regularly create easel or swing or gatefold cards (to name a few!), or if you’ve never had a go, but fancy trying something new, now’s your chance!! This challenge is sponsored by Papernest Dolls and Doodle Garden, and you could win either $25 to spend in the Papernest Doll’s Store or 3 digis of your choice from Doodle Garden!

Now, I had never tried a swing card before, but with a little hunting around, I found an excellent tutorial, based on a 6″ square card, which is my preferred size. I wish I could say it was really difficult, so tricky….but I can’t!! It really was a piece of cake (oops, no pun intended!).

After cutting the card base, I added two complementing papers; the brown and pick one comes from a Forever Friends paper stack, while the pink one is from the Dovecraft Back To Basics III set. For this challenge, I chose to use Cupcake Ellie by the Papernest Dolls. She was great to colour, with all her spots and stripes – and those delicious cupcakes, obviously!! I coloured her with Pro-Markers, sticking to chocolate and strawberry colours as they are my favourite flavour icings!! Then I blended some pink chalk ink onto the white cardstock and popped her up on 3D foam pads. On the reverse of the image panel, I stamped a cupcake (from Hobbycraft) directly onto cardstock, coloured with Pro-Markers and added Candyfloss and Stardust Stickles. 

Now, if I can manage to break away from my 6″ square card comfort zone, I’m sure you can too!! I’d love to see what you make, please do pop over to Crafting From The Heart to show us….and have a look at the other DT projects too while you’re there!

Also, we’re delighted to announce that Crafting From The Heart will become a weekly challenge from Monday 3rd March!  Pop a note in your diary to join us twice as often!!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Lexi’s Creations – Fancy Folds

Crafts For Eternity – Fancy Folds

Come and Get It Challenges – Food, Glorious Food

Incy Wincy – Flower Frenzy

Paper Nest Dolls – Anything Goes

Di’s Digi Designs – Spots and Dots

Addicted-To-Stamps – Flowers

YNS – picture inspiration

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading x

 

One Image, Two Cards

I’ve been busy making two very similar, but obviously different, cards today.  Both feature Abi Ballerina from All Dressed Up; Abi is an old favourite of mine – my daughter even had a top with her picture on when she smaller!  I also based both cards around the same sketch from the current challenge over at Sketch Saturday:

For the first card, I coloured Abi in shades of lilac and purple, and gave her brown hair.  There are little touches of sparkly Stickles on tutu and hairband.

I used a patterned cream and lilac paper from the Dovecraft Back to Basics III paper stack, added a little Bazill card circle with daughter welded to the edge and popped it on a final layer of cream card, embossed with the X-Cut quilting folder.  I cut the wording out twice and added the second layer on top, just to create a little more depth.

The final touch was the band of lace across the centre – I have been dying to use some lace on a card, but haven’t yet been brave enough….hope it looks OK!

The second card features little Abi again, this time coloured in light greens, with touches of Stickles on the tutu and hairband.

This is for a little blonde girl, so I changed Abi’s hair to reflect the intended recipient!  The layout is the same as the first card, but as I kept the colours much simpler, choosing to add texture to white cardstock instead, I feel there is a much cleaner look about the card.  Unfortunately, the coloured mat hasn’t come out too well in the photo – in reality, it is Celtic Green by Bazzill, and is a much springier green, which is similar to the colour of the tutu.  The band of ribbon across the centre should look a few shades darker….but again, hasn’t been treated well by the photo, despite my best efforts to digitally redress the colour balance!

Which do you prefer?  For me, it has to be the first one – I prefer Abi with darker hair and I’m so pleased that I finally managed to use some lace 🙂

I’d like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday – Challenge 291: see sketch above

Thanks for reading x